Blog Tesla Software Update Includes New Autopilot Features

Tesla has pushed a new update that offers new features for Autopilot like speed adjustments and stop sign warnings.

The new features continue to advance the software toward a “feature complete” version of Tesla’s full self-driving version of Autopilot. Chief Executive Elon Musk has said that full version of the software will be available to a limited number of owners by the end of the year. 

Tesla’s description of the new features included in the update (2019.40.2) are below. 

Adjacent Lane Speed Adjustments“When your vehicle is moving at a significantly faster speed than vehicles in neighboring lanes, Autopilot now automatically reduces your driving speed. This is helpful in heavy traffic situations or when there is a long line of vehicles merging into a different lane or exiting onto an off-ramp. When your vehicle detects that adjacent lane traffic is significantly slower, the lane is highlighted with arrows and its vehicles are highlighted gray in the driving visualization. This speed adjustment can be temporarily overridden by pressing the accelerator pedal.”Autosteer Stop Sign Warning“Your car may warn you in some cases if it detects that you are about to run a stop sign, in addition to stop lights, while Autosteer is in use. This is not a substitute for an attentive driver and will not stop the car.”

While Tesla’s vehicles are getting closer to full-self-driving, owners still need to be alert and keep their hands on the steering wheel. However, the company believes that the cars will be able to operate fully without driver intervention in another year. 

 

[boonedocks]

The Adjacent Lane Speed Adjustment aint new. My 3 has been doing that little dance for several months. And it can suck in SoCal traffic.

Last August I was cruising 60+ in the third lane of a 6 lane freeway when the traffic in the 2nd lane slowed to a crawl as it was turning into an exit lane for an upcoming freeway interchange. (both the 1st and second lanes exited stage right to a the northbound freeway.) My car went from 60 to 40 in a nanosecond until it recognized that the cars to my right were moving even further right, and not left into my lane.Something similar happened over Thanksgiving weekend on the drive to NorCal. I've also heard of SoCal tesla drivers experiencing such phantom slowing(?) when driving at the speed limit in the car pool lanes while the adjacent lane is stop and go.

Needless to say, the cars behind me are not impressed with the AP 'safety' slowdown.

Definitely new for me!

Had my first commute on 40.2.1 today and as I suspected, but hoped would not be, did indeed happen. While using NOA in my 38 mile stretch of being in the HOV/PeachPass lane today the new “feature” that slows your car when traveling at a substantially higher speed totally screws up using NOA usage. Several times I was traveling at ~60Mph and the shaded arrows showed up in the adjacent lane and slowed my speed to <45mph. Traffic in front of me left me and the traffic behind me immediately went into rage mode. I had to take over and press the accelerator both times and after the second instance just clicked “off” NOA for the duration.

 

[Mardak]

While using NOA in my 38 mile stretch of being in the HOV/PeachPass lane today the new “feature” that slows your car when traveling at a substantially higher speed totally screws up using NOA usage.

Is the HOV/PeachPass lane separated with solid lines or just regular dashed lines? If solid with occasional breaks to dashed, does the "Adjacent Lane Speed Adjustment" kick in only when it temporarily switches to dashed?

In any case, the highways near Tesla HQ in Palo Alto have HOV lanes only separated by dashed lines, so I'm sure the Autopilot engineers there will run into this undesired slowing down themselves (and hopefully adjust the behavior): Google Maps

 

[boonedocks]

Is the HOV/PeachPass lane separated with solid lines or just regular dashed lines? If solid with occasional breaks to dashed, does the "Adjacent Lane Speed Adjustment" kick in only when it temporarily switches to dashed?

In any case, the highways near Tesla HQ in Palo Alto have HOV lanes only separated by dashed lines, so I'm sure the Autopilot engineers there will run into this undesired slowing down themselves (and hopefully adjust the behavior): Google Maps

It is both, changing to dash lines where entry exit is allowable. The decreased speed actually happened when in the Solid Lane Double Lines portion tho. Traffic usually getd closer in speed at the dash point anyway which is probably why it didn't seem to happen there:

 

[Boatguy]

Elon thinks their AI is much smarter than it is in practice. Unimproved experience with v10:

- car likes to "flinch" when there is a car in the adjacent lane a little too close to the line

- auto wipers are worse, I had to intervene manually numerous times yesterday

- slowing down when in the faster lane defeats the whole purpose of an HOV lane

- NOA will try to move into the right lane when there is a gap, despite that lane being full of cars 100-200 yards ahead. This is the sort of obnoxious driving style I find really annoying when I'm in the left lane.

- Cruise control is much more jerky than in my 2016 S90D. My wife can immediately tell who is driving.

- Other than knowing that an exit is required 1-2mi ahead, NOA makes poor decisions.

- Smart Summon is amusing, but it's much faster, and healthier, to walk to your car than wait for it to go through its very slow dance to drive to you.

I have no use for the arcade games and videos but I'd really like to have the smooth cruise control and AP that was in my 2016.


I think Tesla has very little to show for four years of "self driving" software development. Elon loves to sell the sizzle and not the steak, but there needs to be some steak under that sizzle.

 

[timewasted]

- car likes to "flinch" when there is a car in the adjacent lane a little too close to the line

Piggy backing on this comment here. I don’t remember what update it first appeared in, but I god damned HATE that the car is afraid of anything it thinks is a large vehicle, which is like 90% of the vehicles on the road. Truck in the lane to the left of me? Better swerve to the right of my lane!! Little van to the right of me? Yup, that’s definitely a danger worthy of cowering to the left of my lane. These vehicles are driving normally too, so my car is just running away from them for the sake of running away. I bet the cars around me appreciate the fact that I’m the one swerving around like a madman.

It’s plain stupid and unsafe. At least when “truck lust” was a thing, it was just for a single type of vehicle. Now we’ve got “vehicle cowardice” for most of the cars on the road, further reinforcing my opinion that autopilot is the equivalent of a timid teenager on the freeway for the first time.

 

[Battpower]

Elon thinks their AI is much smarter than it is in practice.

Absolutely.

Raven S hw3. 40.2.1

Accelerates up to max speed even approaching junction / roundabout (in UK).
With wet road surface (after rain) but otherwise perfect conditions, reflections off road create random traffic cone detection (mis-detecting brake light reflection).
Parked cars at roadside often seem to be either ignored (vehicle makes no attempt to avoid) or treated as queue of stationary traffic.
Off-ramps or anywhere with non-uniform road marking especially cross-hatching (what's that called outside of UK?) treated almost randomly. Once it nearly pulled the car back onto the main highway when car was already on the off-ramp.
Cyclists show fine on display, but no attempt to pass. Just slows behind cyclist. (I haven't been able to fully explore this one, but it felt like quite unpredictable behaviour, especially if it sees a cyclist on the sidewalk.
Various heavy fantom braking followed by fast acceleration.
Often seems to drive far too close to curb leaving no chance / room for driver intervention if needed.
Uneven breaking / juddering of brakes when applied by AP while regen is limited during warm-up.
Suggestion of incorrect response to cars parked in lay-bys (don't think they exits in US?) immediately adjacent to main carriageway. Seemed to 'almost' trigger emergency breaking once or twice. Parked vehicle showed as red object on IC display. Brakes applied hard for split second, message about 'take control of vehicle immediately' .

The reflection issue and response to cyclists on the sidewalk were of especial concern. If the car is to respond at all to traffic cones, what will it do if it 'sees' reflections off the road surface that it detects as cones?

 

[Boatguy]

Absolutely.

Raven S hw3. 40.2.1

- Accelerates up to max speed even approaching junction / roundabout (in UK).
- Various heavy fantom braking followed by fast acceleration.
- Suggestion of incorrect response to cars parked in lay-bys (don't think they exits in US?) immediately adjacent to main carriageway. Seemed to 'almost' trigger emergency breaking once or twice. Parked vehicle showed as red object on IC display. Brakes applied hard for split second, message about 'take control of vehicle immediately' .

These are the really annoying aspects of Tesla's automation; the spasmodic braking and accelerating as it clearly has no idea what is happening outside the car.

I also have a BMW i3 with what is now 5yr old "adaptive" cruise control software and it is much smoother. The acceleration could be a little more aggressive but considering that BMW has done virtually nothing to this car for 5yrs, it's quite good. Tesla's software team has always been the weak link. So much so that Elon said he was going to personally manage it. V10 is testimony to how that's working! More video games, no improvement in automation. Tesla is still unable to reproduce the self driving capability that was supplied by Mobileye four years ago.

I think the other mfgs are behind Tesla in motor and hardware technology, and clearly Tesla is the only fully deployed charging network which is a big deal in the U.S. for long distance travel. Mfgs seem to be wisely avoiding the U.S. market and taking their second and third generation cars to Europe where shorter distances reduce the need for a charging network and consumers and governments are generally more receptive. But those mfgs have been developing their "self driving" technology with their ICE vehicles, or perhaps they're buying it from Intel/Mobileye. The point being that self driving technology is not linked to electric cars.

 

[Mardak]

Accelerates up to max speed even approaching junction / roundabout (in UK).

Seems like a lot of your listed concerns are from using Autopilot on "city streets" and the similarly poor behavior happens in the US as well. I guess the main difference is that there's a higher percentage of "city streets" vs (divided and access controlled) "highways" in the UK vs US.

Just making sure, Navigate on Autopilot is not active for you and/or you can't set the speed higher than 5mph over the speed limit?

 

[Battpower]

Seems like a lot of your listed concerns are from using Autopilot on "city streets" and the similarly poor behavior happens in the US as well. I guess the main difference is that there's a higher percentage of "city streets" vs (divided and access controlled) "highways" in the UK vs US.

Just making sure, Navigate on Autopilot is not active for you and/or you can't set the speed higher than 5mph over the speed limit?

Yes, far more smaller streets. When it's been raining, the reflective road surface causes havok for AP. I lived in San Diego for 15 years so I'm familiar with SoCal driving!

No NOAP. (It is a FSD car though ).

I set speed typically 5mph houghoughh below posted limit because that makes it less scary!

It is the jumpy, twitchy unpredictable nature that is actually not only frustrating but genuinely dangerous. Street layouts are generally more compact here, and most probably far more likely for objects to be seen by AP as significant when in fact they are on the sidewalk. (got to be careful with terminology as in UK 'the pavement' is where pedestrians walk ie: sidewalk!)

When I drive manually I feel like my decision horizon is typica whatlly between 50 and 200 feet ahead, or longer on freeways. Tesla AP seems to set its horizon about 20 to 30 feet ahead and is quite happy changing its mind completely about what it thinks it 'sees' without regard for saw milliseconds earlier!

 

[jb007gd]

, further reinforcing my opinion that autopilot is the equivalent of a timid teenager on the freeway for the first time.

That's a great analogy. I'm not certain this is a bad thing though. Tela is literally training an AI to drive. It's got to go through steps to gradually learn.

 

[Gordon87]

On Sunday, I used NOA for the first time since installing 40.2.1. The lane changes were much smoother and quicker than when I was on pre-40. software. Overall, a very noticeable and welcomed improvement.

 

[Boatguy]

That's a great analogy. I'm not certain this is a bad thing though. Tela is literally training an AI to drive. It's got to go through steps to gradually learn.

It's only a bad thing because Tesla has been telling us they are learning for four years! A driver who starts at 16 makes a lot more improvement by the time they are 20 than Tesla has in the last four years.

 

[eli_]

I would have more confidence in this thing if they didn't have the 3D ADAS visualization. It's really cool when it works and has come a long way but you still see adjacent cars phase out of existence, or the depth estimation can't decide what lane they're in. Long vehicles that cross multiple cameras just go totally bananas on there. They enabled visualization of oncoming cars in a recent update and it shows maybe 33% of the cars that pass by.

 

[nimrooz]

And meanwhile in the EU, autopilot and everything gets more chocked...